HC notice to Centre over death penalty under SC/ST Act

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notice to the Centre on a petition filed by a law student challenging the constitutionality of mandatory death sentence prescribed under a provision of the SC/ST Act.

The notice was issued by a division bench headed by Chief Justice Krishna Murari on Wednesday.

The petitioner, Daksh Kadian, a student of the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, contended that section 3(2)(i) of The Scheduled Castes And The Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is in violation of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution for being "being manifestly arbitrary, disproportionate and excessive".

This section prescribes a mandatory death sentence to a person "for wilfully giving and fabricating false evidence which results in the conviction and execution of an innocent member of Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe communities".

The petitioner has argued that the section deprives the court of using its discretion in the matter, and that in failing to take into account the peculiar facts and circumstances of a case, could lead the court to impose "a pre-ordained sentence of death".

Seeking quashing the the Section as "unconstitutional", the petition stated that the accused is deprived of an opportunity to be heard in the matter.

--IANS

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